For day 100 of Eric Vs. 365 we played OutRun Online Arcade for Xbox 360. This was in no way a game we could bang out an episode quickly with and is indeed a special game to mark 100 days of this project no one cares about. Or something. It's a shame OutRun Online got de-listed years ago because it's super fun we wish ya'll could play it too. Click to read more and watch gameplay.
For as many OutRun games as I've played, I've never really "played" them very much. They were always a quick couple of runs and then put on the shelf, never to be seen again. They're definitely fun games but they're shallow and too short and I always got bored pretty quickly. Compared to most other quick pick up and play arcade racers, though, I'd easily say the OutRun games are top-tier overall.
OutRun Online Arcade is weird because it was only available for a very short period of time due to SEGA's licenses with Ferrari expiring. It was released on PS3, but only in Europe and was taken down after only around 18 months. It saw a wider International release on Xbox 360, but was taken down after around 30-months.
Not only was the availability window relatively short, but the game itself is kind of weird in that it is a sort of port / remake of OutRun 2006, but was made when the XBLA file size was only 350MB (it was increased later in 2009), so tons of stuff had to be cut out (so I'll definitely also play OutRun 2006 too at some point). It kind of makes you wonder why they even bothered. My guess is they wanted to crank out another game before the license expired, so they sort of half-assed this one out the door ASAP. That's just my assumption, though.
The game itself is fine as long as you aren't comparing it to the feature list of other console OutRun titles. It plays great and looks stunning in HD. I had a good time playing it for the video.
And, darn it, long live the F50 - my favorite Ferrari and I don't care what anyone else says.
